Last time, I asked whether you know how—and when—to Work Backwards on Problem Solving problems. If you haven’t already worked through part 1 of this series, go do that and then come back here. I’ll wait. ☺Read more

GMAT word problems, like the ones from the Official Guide to the GMAT, usually come with explanations. A lot of those explanations start by turning the word problem into equations. Starting with the equations can make an explanation easy to understand: if the equations match up to what the problem says, then the explanation makes sense. Read more

Before I was a GMAT teacher, I was a piano teacher. At my first job out of college, I would go house to house giving piano lessons to kids. The most important lesson I had for them was always the same: practice slowly, correctly, and in small, manageable pieces.Read more

Why do I have to take the GMAT? Who cares about the Pythagorean theorem? Or perfect grammar? Why do we need to know the rules of exponents? Or what the prime factors of a number tell us? Or how to read a passage about science we’ll never study?Read more

Do you know how to work backwards on Problem Solving problems? More important, do you know when to work backwards—and when not to? To get a really high score on this test, you’ve got to Know the Code in order to get through the questions efficiently.Read more

There are a lot of things the GMAT can’t measure. It can’t measure your intelligence, your value as a person, or your ability to succeed. But is it really just about your test-taking skills? And if you’ve always done poorly on tests, are you doomed to GMAT failure? Read more

The GMAT is a computer-adaptive test, so it makes sense that to beat it, you might need to think like a computer, right? It really is true, but maybe not in the way that you would expect. You might think that a computer is really smart and could solve lots of problems on the GMAT. Actually, the problems on the GMAT require a fair amount of creativity and critical thinking that would be hard for a computer. For solving problems, you need your own human brain.Read more

I promise you this will not be a diatribe directed towards the American school system, but I have to say that many of us were not taught proper grammar when we were in—ahem—grammar school. Many of us were also not taught how to make funny puns on blog posts. 😊Read more

We know your time is precious while you’re prepping for the GMAT. To get the most out of your prep, we recommend analyzing your GMAT practice test results and then using those findings to create a smart study plan moving forward. This will help you strategize, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and get more accustomed to the format of the test.Read more